·The four pairs that get confused
Present and past in English. Many tense mistakes do not come from not knowing the tense, but from choosing the wrong one between two that you do know. We will look at four pairs: present simple and continuous, past simple and present perfect, past simple and past perfect, and the four used to structures. For each one there is a question that decides. The rules are AptisBot's own criteria; the Aptis Core has twenty-five grammar questions with three options.
1/4Present simple or continuous
Present simple or present continuous. Look at the verb and ask yourself: is it something that repeats or is always true, or is it in progress now or during this period? Habit or fact, simple: I get up at seven. Action at this moment or temporary situation, continuous: I'm getting dressed. And watch out for state verbs, such as know, like, want or understand: they almost never go in the continuous. I'm knowing does not exist; you say I know. With the third person, do not forget the s: she works, and does she work, with no s on the verb.
2/4Past simple or present perfect
Past simple or present perfect. First question: is there a finished moment in the sentence, with yesterday, last week, in 2019 or ago? Then it is past simple, even if in Spanish you say he ido: I saw him yesterday. Second: does the situation continue until today, with since, for or so far? Then present perfect: I have lived here since 2019. In Spanish we use the present, vivo aquí desde 2019, but in English that present does not work. And to choose between simple and continuous: quantity or result, simple, I have read three chapters; activity and duration, continuous, I have been reading all afternoon.
3/4Past simple, continuous and past perfect
Past simple, past continuous and past perfect. Think of a film. The past simple is the plot: events moving forward one after another, I got home, had a shower and went to bed. The past continuous is the set: what was in progress when something interrupted it, I was walking home when it started to rain. And the past perfect is the flashback: something that had already happened before another moment in the past, when I got home, my sister had already gone to bed. With by the time, already or never before, it is usually needed. And remember: the past perfect is not the translation of había: ayer había mucha gente is there were a lot of people.
4/4Used to, would, be used to and get used to
Used to, would, be used to and get used to: four structures almost identical in form and very different in meaning. Used to plus infinitive: a past habit or state that no longer exists, I used to smoke. Would plus infinitive: a repeated past habit, only with actions. Be used to plus ing: being accustomed now, I am used to getting up early. And get used to plus ing: the process of becoming accustomed. The key is to look at what follows to: in used to it is an infinitive; in be used to and get used to, to is a preposition, and what follows is ing or a noun. The most common mistake is I am used to get up early.
·To practise
To practise, write six sentences of your own: two with present perfect and for or since, two with past perfect after by the time, and two with used to. Then check, in each one, what the tense marks: the finished moment, the link with the present or what happened earlier. If you hesitate between two options in a Core question, go back to the deciding question.